Rohan Connolly wants to see more goal scoring in the AFL

AFL teams are well and truly back into pre-season, and Rohan Connolly believes “it’s a good time to follow a club, with even the strugglers looking optimistically at the football year ahead.”

“What do you want out of football in 2019?” asks Connolly.

For him, it’s “more goals”. Expressing dismay at the low scoring currently plaguing the game, Connolly said “there’s far too many unattractive, dour scraps going on these days among the 200-odd games each season. Congestion has been a scourge.”

“Last year was the lowest scoring we’ve had in exactly 50 years” says Connolly.

“At a time when every other facet of the game has continued to improve, that is an alarming stat indeed.”

“Between 1986 and 1996, 10 of 11 Coleman medallists kicked at least 100 goals,” says Connolly. In the past 20 years only 2 players have scored more than 100 goals in a season, including Buddy Franklin in 2008.

Connolly hopes that the “latest rule changes mean we get to see a lot, lot more [goal scoring] in 2019.”